Arizona business leader explains how Trump’s TSMC stance could impact state economy

PHOENIX — With Election Day only two weeks away, many in Arizona’s business community are buzzing with renewed concerns over the impact a second presidency from Donald Trump would have on the state’s economy.

However, those fears are overblown, according to Danny Seiden with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

“All of our TSMC investment in Arizona was originally negotiated and began under President Trump when he was in office, the first term,” Seiden told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Tuesday.

He said he has a hard time believing Trump would do anything to undermine the “strategic, economic, diplomatic win” that is TSMC’s partnership with Arizona.

“Of course, the executive has a lot of control over how some of these dollars are handed out, but I have utmost confidence that no sitting president would do anything like that,” Seiden said. “We are allocating dollars to kind of onshore this chip manufacturing. So, in a way, we are bringing chip manufacturing back to America and to Arizona.”

What caused concerns over Trump, semiconductor chips?

The fears over Trump’s impact on Arizona’s semiconductor chip manufacturing stemmed from a summer Bloomberg interview during which he said he disagrees with Biden’s actions.

“Taiwan took our chip business,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in June, adding at the U.S. shouldn’t be “giving them billions of dollars to build chips.”

Seiden said semiconductor chips like TSMC makes enable almost all modern technology. That ranges from cell phones to computers.

“The fact that they’re going to be manufactured here is a huge win of strategic importance to us,” Seiden said.

TSMC leaders have already said they’re investing $65 billion into Arizona to create several chip factories in Phoenix.

This giant chipmaker is building a huge campus in north Phoenix. Engineering wafer production is already underway in its first factory, or fab. This fab will supply computer chips to Apple.

Full operations are set to begin in the first half of 2025. Additionally, the company’s second fab in north Phoenix is set to begin production in 2026 or 2028.

There’s also a third semiconductor facility coming before the end of the decade.